After two weeks in office, that's temporary Mayor Mike Brown's first public estimate of how big a hole the city faces.

And, it could be even bigger.

How bad is it?
Here's a breakdown of Flint's overall financial picture:

• Estimated 2008-09 general fund deficit: $6 million.

• Deficit carried over from 2007-08: $8.3 million.

• Total estimated current deficit: $14.3 million.

• The city has a $66-million general fund budget.

• Deficits must be eliminated, but the city has five years to do so.

Source: City of Flint officials

He's not done scouring the budget to find out just how deep the deficit is -- even recently hiring outside consultants with a $100,000 grant to review all the numbers.

But Brown already believes the city has racked up an additional $6 million in debt so far this fiscal year, adding to the $8.3-million deficit auditors found last year.

In 2002, the city's debt climbed so high that it sparked a state takeover. Debt was $28 million when emergency financial manager Ed Kurtz took over.

Now, it's half that -- and that's a serious issue.

"The ultimate goal is to avoid a state takeover and get us out of debt," said Brown, who replaced former Mayor Don Williamson. "We'll see."

State officials have been meeting with Brown and other city leaders to stem the budget problems and avoid a state takeover.

Brown said there's no "magic number" of accumulated debt that triggers a takeover. But he said now is the time to deal with the problems.

"The next 30 to 40 days are going to be critical," Brown said.

The financial problems are not insurmountable -- Brown even thinks they can be addressed without more layoffs -- but just getting a handle on them is difficult, he said.

A consulting group from Lansing, Prima Civitas, is here to do a "detailed analysis" of the city's current financial position, said former Lansing Mayor David Hollister of the firm.

Brown has spent his first two weeks in office in a seemingly endless stream of meetings on how to tackle the city's debt. The deficit ballooned due to declining revenues and not enough spending cutbacks to counteract the falling revenue.

City Councilman Delrico Loyd said he's encouraged, but it's still a daunting task. Brown primarily controls the budget process, although the council does approve budgets before they go into effect and scrutinizes spending.

"This is a mess," Loyd said.

Brown said he's also meeting with the unions for money-saving ideas -- including possibly concessions in contracts. He swept out Williamson's leading department heads during his first days in office -- but hopes to avoid cutting any more jobs.

"We're not going to jump right into layoffs," Brown said. "That's not what I want to do."

Flint resident Linda Ball said Brown's ideas sound nice, but she's skeptical that there won't be more layoffs and deep cutbacks to city services.

"Doesn't (Brown) see that we're broke right now?" Ball said. "I just don't think he's going to be able to do it."

Brown's hope to avoid layoffs is in contrast to the Williamson administration's stance. Williamson's staff predicted that February would likely bring another round of layoffs on top of massive cutbacks in 2008.

Williamson resigned two weeks ago, and Brown will be in office until voters select a new mayor in August.

Sgt. Rick Hetherington, who leads the police sergeants union, said he already presented Brown with a list of penny-pinching ideas that could save the city close to $1 million. He said the city could reduce pay for officers who work on holidays and allow for an employee-funded early retirement program. That would get older employees out of the system and bring in young, less-costly employees.

"We're encouraged by what we've seen so far," Hetherington said. "Mike wants to work hand-in-hand with the employees to save money."

While that leaves the city $14.3 million in the hole, the debt doesn't have to be eliminated all at once. The state gives cities five years to pay off debt.

The state delayed the due date on a deficit reduction plan until later this month. It originally was due in February.

Flint resident Mickey Streby said while there's no doubt the economy has hurt the city, she believes a lot of the problems Brown is dealing with at City Hall were self-inflicted.

"It has been awfully discouraging for many years," Streby said. "But I'm encouraged by what's happening so far (with Brown). For the first time in a long time we have really good people down there."

Brown said the first step is understanding where the city's finances are at now -- part of the reason for hiring Prima Civitas. The Charles Stewart Mott Foundation gave the city a $100,000 for the consulting work.

Prima Civitas had done some work for the Genesee Regional Chamber of Commerce. Brown was a vice president at the chamber before coming over to the city for the six-month temporary mayor assignment.

"We think there's efficiencies that they could find," said Brown, who also hopes to lean on the firm's expertise while crafting the 2009-10 budget. "These are people who are going to help us dig out of the deficit."

Hollister said he's deploying a six-person team, including himself, to work in Flint for 90 days.

"The team we assigned to help Flint is the same team we used to turn around Lansing," said Hollister, who was Lansing's mayor from 1994-2003 and then served as the director of the state Department of Labor and Economic Growth.

An $11-million sewer lawsuit also is looming, and Brown said he wants to work to get that settled. The lawsuit money will come out of the $31-million sewer fund so it probably won't affect the city's general fund deficit, Brown said. He said he's checking into whether the sewer fund will be able to absorb paying out the lawsuit.

Attorney Dean Yeotis, who represents 183 clients who had sewer damage to their homes, said he's willing to listen to "reasonable" offers to settle the case.

Carol Gardner, a Flint native, said she knows Brown personally, and believes he can do what some may believe is nearly impossible.

"He's good at maneuvering and not offending people and getting things done," Gardner said. "I think he can do it, and I don't believe he would lay off in the police or fire departments."